To quote a wise man:

"Another one!"

It was a long flight back to UA for Izuku. The conversation with Sumire as well as the villain attack weighing heavily on his mind. There was so much for him to unpack that he was glad that he had the skies alone to himself.

Well, if you excluded the other birds.

First and foremost, they practically had confirmation that Death Arms, Native and Backdraft were corrupt. It was painful, in all honesty. The more cynical part of Izuku's mind also knew it was to be expected, though. Perhaps not to this extent, but it wasn't terribly surprising some heroes weren't righteous.

The ranking system for all its upside did have some flaws. The approval rating especially was a big factor in all of this. A fantastic approval rating could keep you in your spot even with a low solve rate. Conversely, your solve rate could be phenomenal, but if the public didn't like you...well then you'd have to be amazing to break into the upper tiers. It was a bit of a flashpoint right now too as All Might had a lower solve rate than Endeavor, but a much higher approval rating,

So maybe what those three "heroes" had done wasn't too out there to consider. Even so, it still hurt. Izuku was a positive guy, he liked to think. He gave most people the benefit of the doubt barring the most exceptional of situations.

The last thing he wanted to do was assume that there were many heroes like the Iwatani Three. He wished that he and Sumire were on a quest to prove their innocence, but that wasn't the case. Instead, they were on the precipice of a society shaking discovery for the rest of Japan.

What was more was that attack on Edgeshot. Izuku had a keen eye when it came to Quirks as his many notebooks could attest to. Even if he weren't such a Quirk geek, it was clear as day to anyone that the attack on Edgeshot was premeditated. The festival hadn't been the target at all– it was just the location Edgeshot, a rather elusive hero, was guaranteed to be at for some time.

The Quirks were a perfect counter to Edgeshot and if it hadn't been for Infiniti all ranked heroes would have moved up a spot. In the end, Infiniti had interfered, but the villains had still escaped at the end of the day in some sort of misty warping Quirk. The user of that Quirk must have been their way in and out of the battle— and also probably not a part of the attacking force.

The designated driver needed to be sober or something to that effect.

Infiniti or perhaps he should say Tomiko wasn't someone Izuku knew well. In fact, his first time hearing about her was that argument she'd had with Yaoyorozu not that long ago. He hadn't wanted to pry and there was clearly some friction there, but now he almost had no choice, but to pry.

Tomiko was using chakra metal. Yes, Izuku had been watching the fight on TV, but deep down he just knew it was chakra metal. It was as if he had a sixth sense that could identify chakra metal on sight. Considering what he knew of chakra, that probably wasn't all the way impossible.

The final blow of the day was maybe pointless, but Izuku just knew there was something in it. The villain who'd paralysed Edgeshot with his Quirk looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn't quite place him. He hadn't seen a Quirk that worked quite like that either...at least not one that he could remember off the top of his head.

UA was down below and Izuku angled his body downwards— picking up speed as he did so. Why the hell did he think this was a good idea?! He let out squawks and chirps as he descended before finally levelling out as he flew over the forests behind the dorms.

He had to have a plan of attack to deal with all of this stuff. Sumire was going to do the heavy lifting on the investigation side of the Iwatani Three and chakra metal which was a relief. That left the fallout from the Edgeshot/Infiniti up to him— specifically the chakra metal.

Izuku flew down to the ground as he stopped before a familiar tree. He spun around multiple times to ensure he was alone before he dropped his Transformation. Immediately, the world became duller, but Izuku was thankful for it.

He moved a specific pile of rocks over and sure enough, his student pass was still there— looking as pristine as ever. Izuku wore it around his neck before he began to run back towards the dorm. It would've been a lot simpler if he'd just flown from his room, but since he had a shared balcony, anyone could see him use the Transformation jutsu.

The forest floor crunched beneath him as he ran before finally Izuku emerged into the backyard of his class's dorm. It was no moment too soon as a soccer ball rocketed towards him. Izuku trapped the ball with his foot and looked up to see Kirishima waving towards him.

"Midoriya! Over here!" Kirishima shouted from in and amongst Satou, Kaminari and Mina, "Hey! Do you wanna play? It's only us four right now."

Izuku booted the ball back to Kirishima, but waved his hand apologetically, "Sorry! I've got a few things to take care of first! I'll join you guys next time, though!"

"Alright, I'll hold you to that!"

Izuku let out a sigh of relief at being let go so easily. The others continued their game and let Izuku leave without much issue. None of them even seemed all that curious about why he was out in the forest, which was good. The last time they'd seen him, he'd had a broken jaw amongst other injuries. Now, he was running out of the forest so close to curfew?

Yeah, totally not suspicious.

Izuku walked around the house and there was no one out in front, thankfully. It wasn't even that late and even with curfew approaching they didn't have to sleep by curfew. They just had to be indoors. The proper curfew was probably closer to eleven or twelve which was when they'd agreed as a class to shut off the lights in common areas.

Izuku slipped off his shoes as he opened the door and he was hoping that no one was around, but that wasn't the case. Almost his entire class was in the common area. Hagakure and Mineta were fighting over the remote whilst all the others were strewn across the couches.

"Hey, Midoriya! Where the hell have you— give that back, Hagakure!" Mineta's greeting was cut off as Hagakure snatched the remote from him, "I'll put my balls on it right now! And not the ones you're thinking about it."

Izuku didn't want to know which ones Mineta meant. He waved a bit awkwardly to the rest of his classmates which was returned. Izuku was about to make a beeline for his room, but he was stopped as Iida intercepted him— walking so quickly Izuku was pretty sure he'd used his Quirk.

"Midoriya, it is good to see you are back," Iida said as he stopped in front of Izuku, "Uraraka told me you had a fantastic showing after Bakugou defeated me earlier today."

"Midoriya's back?" Uraraka's voice called as she spotted him across the room, "Where were you? No one could find you!"

Oh, right. He had friends and classmates that would

"I slept after class and then trained a bit in the forest," Izuku said which seemed to

"Yeah, you were great!" Uraraka said as she pulled him and Iida towards the rest of their class, "You beat the crap out of everyone! Well, except for Todoroki, but still! That was AWESOME! Way better than how those two dorks did against Todoroki."

Izuku stumbled and tripped as Uraraka pulled him along, but he didn't resist. Soon, he was also on one of the many couches and right in the midst of his class. Shouji was on a lone beanbag and while his normal eyes were closed, there was an eye open on his tentacle arm.

Looking around, Izuku saw that quite a few of his classmates weren't here. Bakugou, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu were the most notable absentees, but also Camie, Aoyama and Asui. Still, though, the room felt as if it were filled to the capacity as he was thrown right into the mix.

Suddenly, Izuku realised he'd been quiet for a bit too long.

What was the last thing said? Oh, right. Mineta and Kaminari had been against Todoroki after him. And judging from what Uraraka had said, it did not end well. That was probably to be expected.

Thanks to him using Paradigm Shift, Izuku had ruined the ground floor of the arena. It had probably been near impossible for Kaminari's electricity to find a direct path to Todoroki.

"Yeah, I could imagine..."

Plus, Todoroki wasn't the type to hold back so it had probably been ugly. He should probably buy Kaminari and Mineta something nice. That couldn't have been fun for them to go through and he felt partly responsible.

"I would be interested in hearing about your fight with Bakugou," Iida said as he snapped Izuku out of his thoughts, "Our strategy was not good enough and if it were not for my family's outfit, I would be in far worse shape."

Izuku grimaced as he recalled the explosion that Iida had withstood. It was a testament to the strength of both Iida and the armour that he seemed completely fine just a few hours later in the day.

"Yeah, Bakugou creamed us!" Uraraka admitted with a shy grin before perking up immediately, "But you fought him so well and won!"

"Yeah, you were great! You hospitalised him! That's what he gets for calling me Mouth Girl!" Hagakure said very clearly biased before turning away as Mineta stole the remote once more, "Hey! Give that back, Mineta! Even I don't watch the Heroine Channel this much!"

Hagakure's interjection wasn't especially helpful in downplaying what he did. It only made him more nervous as he realised the others were listening in on their conversation. Ugh. If this was Kendou, Izuku would have had no issues with boasting, but that was done in jest— kinda.

He might not even tell her about it, in all honesty. The only reason he'd gotten so mad was because Bakugou had insulted Kendou. She'd never let that one go. A good portion of his class had probably heard that part too so maybe it was best if he swept it under the rug.

Plus, Bakugou wasn't even here to defend himself! So, it wasn't fair to him at all. Izuku definitely didn't want to downplay it all because of the potential of Kendou finding out. Nope. That wasn't the reason at all.

For the first time in years, Izuku wished Bakugou was here. His absence was definitely why everyone was so nonchalant talking about their fight— the somewhat gruesome affair it was. He highly doubted anyone else would broach the topic otherwise.

Then again, no one seemed to be scared of Bakugou, not really. Considering how Kirishima had taunted Bakugou after Aizawa-sensei's test, they might have played things up just to get under his skin.

It was a complete deviation from the status quo at Aldera. Not even teachers challenged Bakugou the way people here seemed to. It was still a bit shocking to Izuku, in all honesty.

"Is a mere name really something to be upset by?" Tokoyami asked Hagakure his voice as gloomy as ever, "It is rather dark and dastardly to do this only because you were bested, Hagakure. How unexpected of you."

"Oh, like you wouldn't want to know how to beat Todoroki after he beat you and Shouji!" Hagakure hollered back at Tokoyami. The lack of an immediate response was pretty telling as Tokoyami turned away from everyone's gaze as he crossed his arms.

"You might be right," Tokoyami finally admitted, "Midoriya, perhaps you should illuminate us about your fight."

And just when he thought Tokoyami was on his side...

"Eh– I wasn't that good. Kacchan almost had me back there. I got lucky," Izuku said and it felt like everyone was lasered in on his words as they leaned, "I mean Todoroki beat me and four other people. Shouldn't you ask him?"

"Well, we would, but Todoroki is kinda scary," Uraraka admitted with no hint of shame, "Bakugou hasn't come downstairs since he got back so that's a dead end. Plus, no one knows where Yaomomo is and you messed her up pretty bad too so we had to default to you."

"Because I'm not scary, angry or absent?"

"Or injured, but pretty much!" Uraraka agreed and the others all seemed to agree too— even Iida which was a bit surprising. If there was anyone who didn't seem to be the type to be cowed by either one of Bakugou or Todoroki— it was Iida.

"Well mostly the injured part," Iida clarified as he leaned forward in his seat, "You are in the best condition and I trust your judgement so any advice would be appreciated."

Oh, boy. He was really doing this, wasn't he?

"Well, I probably only did so well because Kacchan and I grew up together," Izuku said as he addressed the class at large, "I don't wanna give his secrets away, but I've watched him use his Quirk all my life. That's why I was able to hang in there for as long as I could. I kinda have a thing for Quirks so I keep all these little details in my head about them."

"You seemed to get pretty mad at each other, though," Camie said as she appeared from somewhere startling them all, "Oh, hey guys!"

"Please don't do that again, Camie," Uraraka said as she held her hand over her chest, "We get scared enough by Hagakure. We don't need another person randomly appearing out of thin air."

Hagakure let out a noise, "Uh, actually, I never appear since you know—"

"Your Quirk."

"You're invisible."

"Your Quirk makes you invisible."

"You're invisible."

"No one can see you."

"—I'm invisible! Ugh, you guys suck!" Hagakure finished her joke far too late for her painfully predictable punchline to have any impact.

"Yeah so like what did that dude say to get you so angry?" Camie asked as she ignored Hagakure's insult, "Is there like bad blood between you two or is he always that angry?"

"Uhhhhh," Izuku trailed off as he realised just how intrigued everyone was, "He's always been a bit intense— not that that's a bad thing! We all get a bit mad, sometimes, right? I guess I just kinda lost it a bit since it was a fight and all that. All that, uh, adrenaline and stuff can make you go crazy, right? I think I read something like that online, once or twice. You guys get it, right?"

It was a rambling and stilted answer, but everyone seemed to accept it, thankfully. His rambling finally did something good for him. Plus, it had the added bonus of not throwing Bakugou under the bus. Not only would that be a bit mean, but the last thing he needed was Bakugou being upset about Izuku spilling about their past.

It was only Camie who seemed very unsatisfied with his answer as she raised a brow at him. He didn't have the time to deal with this. With his luck, Camie would find a way to wring everything Izuku knew out of him.

Just as Camie was about to speak, Izuku glanced at the clock on reflex. He got up to his feet as he saw there was only about twenty minutes until curfew, "Have you guys seen Yaoyorozu? Is she still in the infirmary? I need to ask her something about...math."

Mineta chose that moment to make a weird sound that everyone seemed to ignore.

"Huh, where is Yaomomo? She was just cooking something in the kitchen before that festival attack," Hagakure asked as she...did something with her hands and head— it was pretty hard to tell what her mannerisms were, in all honesty.

"I haven't seen her since that Edgeshot fight," Asui said as she walked down the stairs, "I think she went for a run. I checked her room and she's not there."

Huh, that was actually useful information. If he could get Yaoyorozu alone then he could ask her the things that had been swirling around in his mind. If she'd been in her room then it would've been very impossible for him to speak to her.

No chance in hell was he going over to the girl's side of the dorm. It didn't even matter that Yaoyorozu was on the same floor as him.

"Okay, got it. I'll see you guys later, " Izuku said and he was surprised to catch a few disappointed looks from a few of them, "I've just got some stuff to handle."

"Don't think we forgot about you and Iida matching outfits," Uraraka said pointing at the two of them rather dramatically, "I still want an explanation— you promised one."

Oh, right. That was true. The others seemed to remember all at once and Izuku felt dread broil within him. This was more public speaking than he'd ever done before. The last thing he wanted was to explain—

"Midoriya said he would explain when everyone's here and not everyone is," Iida said as he silenced the class very effectively, "Until then, we just have to wait!"

Okay, so he had to get something for Iida too now.

"Sorry guys! I'll explain once I've handled everything!" Izuku said as he walked up the stairs, but no one seemed truly bothered by his departure.

Izuku bounded up the stairs to his room before he unlocked it. He flicked the light switch on as he shut the door behind him. It was then that he saw his phone's screen was on. He picked it up and grimaced a bit at the notifications. He had quite a few missed calls and texts from Kendou.

The texts varied in length and politeness, but they all seemed to carry the same message. Well, there were two messages she was trying to get across. Firstly, Kendou had heard about his little visit to the infirmary and was trying to check in on how he was. Secondly, she was asking where he was and that she needed to talk to him now.

The second set of messages were sent about an hour ago.

Izuku picked his phone up and called Kendou. He really wished he could have taken his phone with him, but unlike his clothes, Izuku was pretty sure the Transformation wouldn't work on it. A bird flying with a cell phone was bound to draw attention.

And that was if he didn't drop it in the first place.

The dial tone barely began before Kendou picked up, "Are you okay? I heard about your fight. Apparently, you got clobbered real bad. Maybe I went too hard on you in the morning."

As much as Izuku appreciated her first question being about his wellbeing, he wasn't about to take the veiled insult, "That's not what happened— both times. I definitely won our fight and I only had to get my jaw healed— Yaoyorozu broke it with a metal staff."

"She broke your jaw? That's a girl after my heart," Kendou said and he rolled his eyes but he dismissed that as her tone shifted, "I'm glad you're fine. I heard you and Bakugou really got into it. Apparently, you fingered him so hard he passed out...hang on a bit, Izuku. Tokage! Why are you laughing? Please keep it down and stop snooping! The others are trying to—"

Izuku heard a bit of a commotion on Kendou's side. He heard a very loud and obnoxious laugh and Kendou yelling at someone— presumably Tokage. There were a few more yells and laughs before he heard what sounded like running. Finally, he heard a door slam shut.

"I'm back. Sorry about that," Kendou said and he could practically feel the smile that was on her face, "Tokage is so annoying. You have no idea how bad she can get."

Despite what she was saying, there was no venom in her voice. Did that mean Kendou was already on the road to making friends with her classmates? That was great. It was maybe the best news Izuku had heard all day long and it made a warm feeling bloom in his chest.

"I might have an idea," Izuku said through a smile as he thought of his classmates, "Anyways, what we're we talking about again?"

"About Bakugou and how you used your finger to—"

"Oh, right!" Izuku said as he collapsed onto his bed, "Well, I just finger flicked him at full strength and it kinda knocked him out. I got lucky, though. He was charging up a major attack and I thought for sure he'd get it out before me."

"He didn't let off his attack?" Kendou asked a bit surprised, "He doesn't strike me as the type to hold back."

Izuku snorted. That was rich coming from her.

"Takes one to know one..."

"What was that?" Kendou asked her voice just a touch raised.

"Nothing," Izuku said far too quickly, "Anyways, you're right. For whatever reason, he held back and I got the win. It was weird. He isn't the type to back down like that."

"Maybe something went wrong with his Quirk," Kendou supplied before snorting, "Or maybe he realised he owed you one for being such a dick."

"..."

"...Yeah, definitely not the second one, huh?" Kendou asked as she let out a giggle. Izuku, despite it all, laughed as well and then when they calmed down(did her laugh always sound so nice?), he was able to remember why he called.

"Anyways, you blew my phone up while I was out training. What's up with that?" Izuku asked and if he'd been expecting a mundane answer he was dead wrong.

"Oh, right! You totally made me forget!"

He made her forget? About what? And how was Kendoubeing forgetful his fault? Maybe the headbutt he'd given did some permanent damage?

"I heard that," Kendou said and Izuku didn't even have time for a rebuttal, "I'll get you back for that headbutt, by the way. Anyways, I want to send you something. Put me on speaker and check it out."

Izuku did as Kendou asked and he saw she'd sent him two things. An image and then a video. He clicked on the image and to his surprise, he saw one of the villains that had fought Edgeshot. It was the guy with the paralyzing laser beams.

Dread bubbled in his stomach.

"Isn't this one of the guys that attacked Edgeshot today?" Izuku asked as he tried to keep the worry out of his voice.

"Yeah, now check the video."

Izuku clicked on the video and he blinked at what he saw, "Hey, isn't this—"

"Yeah, it is. Please just keep watching. Pause when I hit the first guy ."

Izuku did keep watching. He watched surveillance footage of Kendou outside her gym being accosted by a few criminals. He watched as a man's eyes glowed pink and it made Kendou freeze. One of the criminals' nails began to grow as she stalked towards Kendou and another held a bat at the ready.

This video was from when he'd rescued Kendou as Kage.

Sure enough, a trash can was thrown from off-screen onto the car and the airbags took out the battle. Kendou could move again and she did so to devastating effect as she punched the guy with the glowing eyes. It was there that Izuku was able to get a good look at the guy's face and the last puzzle slipped into place.

"This is the guy that fought Edgeshot," Izuku began and he didn't need to fake the confusion in his tone, "Isn't he supposed to be in prison. What's his name again?"

"Fuzui Nirami," Kendou supplied and her tone had hints of confusion and anger, "I knew it was him straight away, but his Quirk is so different now and he should be in prison. The police came by the gym to let us know he'd been sentenced."

That's why the guy stuck out to Izuku so much. He'd seen him and his crew before. The only reason it took so long to recall the guy was because Kendou had been the one to take him out—not Kage. Izuku remembered the faces and Quirks of everyone he had fought.

He even had an entry for the woman in the video with the long nails— Tsume Enchou. He had followed up on the case and Tsume much like Fuzui and Heikin as well as the driver (whose name eluded Izuku currently) had all been sentenced to years in prison.

Prisoners had just about no way to use their Quirks. Depending on the Quirk and the severity of their crimes, prisoners would be sent to prisons suited to handling them. For example, fire Quirks users were sent to prisons with extensive fire suppression systems. Strength Quirk users were sent to prisons that had technology designed to suppress their Quirk— courtesy of I-Island.

Those were the nicer ones too. There were many prisons that executed prisoners who used their Quirks. Apparently, Tartarus and other prisons of its ilk worldwide were said to be like this. It sounded crazy, but apparently, they had brain wave sensors that would activate the killing mechanisms if prisoners thought of using their Quirk.

He had no idea how true it was, but it was quite barbaric and not a situation he'd want to find himself in.

He was getting sidetracked. The point was there should have been no way for Nirami to use his Quirk at all— let alone develop it to such an extent and then on top of that somehow escape prison. And even if that had happened, which it evidently had, there was still one burning question.

"Why hasn't the Commission said anything about an escaped prisoner?" Izuku said and unbidden another question flowed from him, "And how many more of them are there?"

"Yeah," Kendou said with a heavy sigh, "That's what I was thinking."

There was just one question left now.

"What should we do?"

"I-I don't know," Kendou said and Izuku hated how subdued her voice was, "I want to tell the Hero Commission, but surely they already know. There's no way they don't. I just don't know who to go to or who would take us seriously."

That was without taking Kendou's sour history with the Hero Commission into account too. He had to get this to Sumire that was for sure. He'd be sure to keep Kendou out of it as much as he could, but Sumire could be the push needed to blow this open.

That wasn't enough, though. Despite their rather short friendship, Izuku knew Kendou. Simply going to the media wasn't enough for her. She wanted to tell someone that could actually apply pressure to the Commission. The media could do that, but Kendou probably thought no one would take her seriously.

They needed someone who had enough stature in the hero world but was also easily accessible to them. Someone who knew what they were like and would actually trust their word. After all, no reputable media outlets would accept their slightly circumstantial evidence.

Sumire would, but was busy with the Hero Killer and the Miraculum/Konoha situation. Speaking of, Izuku looked at all the weapons hanging on his wall. He really should learn how to use those...

With the silence hanging between them, Izuku let his eyes traverse his room. He did so idly until he blinked as he realised something. Wow, this was embarrassing. Even for him. How hadn't he thought of this yet?!

"I've got an idea," Izuku said as his eyes widened, "There's someone we can go to. Someone bigger than the Commission."

Kendou perked up, "Really? Who?"

Izuku smiled, "Only the world's best hero."

"You don't mean—"

"Yup," Izuku said as he stared at the array of action figures in his room, "We can go to All Might! He teaches at UA now!"

Kendou was silent for a second before she squealed in excitement. Izuku may or may not have made a similar sound. He'd never tell, that was for sure.

"You're right! We just need to find him and then we'll tell him and maybe Vlad-sensei and Aizawa-sensei too. Just to cover our bases."

"Yeah, let's do it early tomorrow. Before school," Izuku said as his mind whirred away, "That means we can't spar or anything. We can start out at the teacher's lounge and then go to Principal Nezu's."

"Okay, that sounds like a plan," Kendou said her voice back to its sunny disposition, "I've been sitting on this for a while now. I'm really glad I told you this. It would have been torture keeping it secret! You're the best."

Yeah. Izuku knew how much it hurt to keep a secret from everyone.

"I'm sure you would've figured something out eventually," Izuku said as he felt a weird tingling in his chest, "You are you, after all."

"I am me? That doesn't sound like much of a compliment," Kendou's voice was teasing, but for whatever reason, Izuku felt like he had to reaffirm what he'd said.

"It is," Izuku said his voice a touch firmer, "I wish a lot more people were like you. You're awesome."

"O-Oh. R-Really? You don't have to flatter me like that, you know? We're already friends!"

Izuku's heart was blaring in his ears. Why did she think he was joking? He wasn't the type to joke about stuff like this. Hell, Izuku was barely the joking type. Usually, his jokes fell flat with everyone. Not with Kendou, but that was probably because her jokes were somehow worse than his...even if they still made him laugh.

"No flattery. I mean what I said. Truly. You're one of the best people I know, Itsuka. I'd never lie about that."

It was a bit naughty of him to use her first name, but he only did it when he was serious. Surely, she'd know he was being honest now? He even used his "Kage voice" to assert himself more. It felt silly without the mask, but he did sound more assertive maybe, probably, hopefully?

"Oh! I am? Wow. Uhm. You too. Hahaha. Well, I, uhm, Setsuna told me that mathematics and Vlad-sensei were stopping Monoma from falling. Hahaha—Thank you. Goodnight!"

The line went dead after that leaving Izuku just extremely confused. What the hell had that been about? He'd never heard Kendou sound so flustered and nervous. Was it something he'd said? Izuku sat on it for a minute before he realised. It made sense. How stupid could he be? His mouth as the words fell from his mouth.

"She was making fun of my muttering!" Izuku groused as he got off his bed, "And after I was so nice to her! Next time we spar, I'm definitely headbutting her...or maybe I could—"

There was a knock at Izuku's door that drew him from his revenge plans. It was a surprise that someone had come to see him, but he put the thought aside. There were only five minutes until curfew. If Yaoyorozu was going to come back then it would be very soon. If it hadn't happened already.

Izuku opened the door and blinked.

"I heard you were looking for me," Yaoyorozu said as she stood patiently in front of his door. She looked to be completely healed from the damage she'd taken— from him, lest he forget— earlier today. Her expression was as placid and cold as ever which was at once worrying and calming.

She didn't seem that mad at him. At least compared to the norm.

"Yeah, yes. I was looking for you," Izuku said and he took a deep breath, "We need to talk. In private. It's important."

"Can we do it here?"

"Sure," Izuku answered automatically before blinking, "Wait. You mean here as in my room?"

Yaoyorozu tilted her head just a touch— it made for a scary yet heart-stopping effect, "Oh. Well if you do not want me to go in then we could go to my room—"

Izuku stepped aside to let her in.

Yaoyorozu stared at Izuku.

He stared back.

They were in his room and now that Izuku had Yaoyorozu right where he needed her, he didn't know where to start. It was shaping up to be one of the worst experiences in his life. At least his room was clean? Yaoyorozu was sitting on his chair and Izuku was on his bed.

Even sitting down, Yaoyorozu still had a bit of a height advantage over him so she was looking down on him too. As you could imagine, this did nothing to alleviate his worries. Well, that and the fact that Yaoyorozu stared at him— her gaze sharp and unblinking.

Okay, screw it.

"How's your nose?"

Izuku broke the ice with the first thing to come out of his mouth.

"Huh?" Yaoyorozu lifted a brow for a second before it dropped, "Oh. It's fine. Recovery Girl took care of everything once I woke up."

"Well, that's good to know," Izuku said before he sighed, "Sorry, this is just kinda weird. I'm not really all that comfortable around strangers."

Strangers? This was going great. Of all the words in the world, why did he choose that one?

"Strangers?" Yaoyorozu crossed her arms as she leaned back, "We met at the Entrance Exam. I've known you the longest out of anyone in UA."

"Really?" Izuku couldn't help, but ask, "Me? Seriously?"

Yaoyorozu nodded, "Remember the bag?"

Oh, yeah.

"Sorry about that, er, again," Izuku said a touch of nervousness in his voice, "That day was pretty hectic and that bag was pretty expensive. Sorry for ruining it. I get why it made you so upset."

Yaoyorozu seemed to curl in on herself at his words. Unlike Kendou or Bakugou, it was hard to tell what that meant. Even Todoroki was easier to read than this. Though, Todoroki seemed to only have one real emotion which was apathy...and now that he thought about it that was pretty weird.

What was up with that?

"Look, about that day—" Yaoyorozu began before shaking her head, "Why were you looking for me?"

Okay, so small talk was over. Finally. Their talk was almost as bad as his first time meeting Sumire— and that was how it always seemed to be between the two of them. It was as if there was some sort of invisible and insurmountable wall between them.

"It's about that terrorist attack today," Izuku said and he almost flinched as Yaoyorozu's eyes darkened, "The one with Edgeshot."

"What about it?"

Izuku put the frosty response aside as he pulled on all his confidence, "The hero that saved him— Infiniti. She's your sister, right?"

Yaoyorozu sighed, "Yes, Tomiko is my older sister. How did you make the connection? Was it her Quirk?"

Izuku bit back a flinch, "Well, not really. Remember our first night here? When I brought you some of that pizza?"

"...I do," Yaoyorozu supplied and he noticed her hands were gripping onto the sleeves of her jersey, "What would you like from her? Tomiko is very busy nowadays so—"

"What? No, no, no, no," Izuku waved his hands as he cut Yaoyorozu off, "It's nothing like that! Honestly, it was just that after seeing the both of you fight, I wanted to ask you for a favour."

Yaoyorozu paused as she took in his words, "What could I do for you? Do you want me to create something? "

What was up with her and jumping to conclusions? Did he really think he'd want to use her as some sort of printer? It was probably easy as all hell for Yaoyorozu to do that but that felt wrong, somehow. Then again, what he was about to ask would actually need more effort on her part so maybe not?

"No, that's not it!" Izuku said as he cut her off causing her to clam up, "I need your help improving my long-range capabilities."

Just like that, the tension in the room bled away.

"You need my help with that?" Yaoyorozu asked and Izuku nodded, "Why not go to one of our teachers with this? Snipe-sensei would be perfect."

"Two reasons, really," Izuku replied, "One, Snipe-sensei has a homeroom class of his own so he's probably very busy."

Yaoyorozu seemed to accept that answer.

"And two, I need to find a way to use all these kunai and shuriken," Izuku finished as he gestured around the room, "You used some shuriken against me earlier today and so did your sister. If you're even half as good with shuriken as you are with that staff of yours then you'd be doing me a massive favour."

Yaoyorozu stared at him for what felt like forever before she turned away and rose from his chair, "Can I hold them?"

"Yeah, go ahead," Izuku said as he joined her by his desk which had a lot of weapons hanging over it, "I haven't even used these since I got them."

Yaoyorozu took a kunai off the wall and examined it. Her fingers ran over every inch of the kunai. What was that about? Before he could ask her anything, though, she put it back on the wall. She then picked up a shuriken and examined the sharpness of its blades.

"These are superb quality," Yaoyorozu said without looking away from the shuriken, "The balance and sharpness is near-perfect. They are also remarkably lightweight. I'm not too sure what these are made of. Where did you get these?"

Well, that was a bit odd. Tomiko used the exact same weapons. How was it that Yaoyorozu didn't even seem to realise that? In fact, she seemed to almost be enthralled by them. Her fingers traced the edge of the shuriken's blade with barely-controlled curiosity.

"They're from Konoha. It was payment to do an interview with Japan News Network," Izuku said and he almost missed Yaoyorozu's flinch, "Quite a few networks really wanted an interview with me. Isn't your family handling the research?"

"Yes, but access to Konoha artefacts wasn't allowed for many outside of our scientists and my mother. One of our lead scientists got fired and blacklisted for dropping a plate even though it never broke."

Blacklisted too? Not just fired. That was...worrying. Over a plate? The same plates that Izuku's mom was probably eating off of right now?

Izuku could feel he'd stumbled into something Yaoyorozu wouldn't have liked him to. He knew Yaoyorozu wasn't lying. There was no way of faking her sheer enthusiasm at looking over those weapons. But he also knew that Tomiko was using actual chakra metal weapons in the field.

This was after the Iwatani robbery. If Native and Death Arms knew the value of Miraculum. It was impossible for Tomiko not to know the value of them. So, why would she run the risk of using them? Did she think no one could spot them as quickly as he did?

"Was Tomiko allowed access?"

"Tomiko?" Yaoyorozu asked her face set into a confused frown, "No. My mother is the only non-scientist in the company to have seen these up close and that's only because she's the CEO. She told me that she would not let either of us near them... Why would ask about Tomiko?"

Yaoyorozu had stepped closer to Izuku which made him lose some of his nerve, "In her fight today, Tomiko was using Konoha weapons. Right at the very end."

"You're wrong," Yaoyorozu's answer was immediate, "You don't know what you're talking about. My mother said they were invaluable and that we could only see them once the excavations were complete."

"Look, Yaoyorozu, I don't know your mother but—"

"Exactly!" Yaoyorozu spat back as she stepped closer to him, "So please don't try to tell me what she'd do."

Yaoyorozu's glare was so intense Izuku couldn't quite meet it. Instead, he looked down to the ground and it was there that he saw Yaoyorozu was still holding onto the shuriken. This would have been fine if it weren't for the fact that it was now digging into her palm. Blood was oozing onto the shuriken and falling to the floor.

"Yaoyorozu," Izuku said his voice as placating as possible as he pushed Yaoyorozu back by her shoulder, "Please calm down. You're hurting yourself."

It seemed to do the trick as Yaoyorozu looked down at her hand, "Oh! I-I need to get this fixed. I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention. I'm so sorry, Midoriya. I'll clean this and then—"

Yaoyorozu made to leave, but Izuku caught her by her elbow and halted her escape, "Come with me."

Yaoyorozu tried to complain, but Izuku all but forced her to follow him. He got a clean rag from his dresser before they went into his bathroom. He opened a tap and put her hand under the water. The water gushed out the tap and washed over the cuts on Yaoyorozu's hands.

The blood and water swirled around in the sink as Izuku waited long enough for all the blood to be washed away. Once that was done, he moved Yaoyorozu's hand away from the stream. He wet the cloth with tap water before he closed it.

His bathroom was a bit cramped so Izuku had to move things back to his bed. Still guiding her by the elbow, he made Yaoyorozu sit on the bed and he was at the desk. Once they were settled, he made sure the cloth was sufficiently wet before looking up at Yaoyorozu.

"Please give me your hand."

Thankfully, Yaoyorozu didn't fight it. Instead, she just held her hand out— there was still some blood leaking out, but not as much as before. Izuku gently held her hand before he used the cloth to dab away at all the cuts. Izuku was methodical with it and he soldiered on despite the whispers of pain from Yaoyorozu.

He needed to get his first aid kit for some dressing. It wouldn't be right to ask Yaoyorozu to create something. Thankfully, his first aid kit was right by his desk and he was able to get what he needed in short order. He looked at Yaoyorozu's hand which was partially covered by the long sleeve of her jersey.

Yaoyorozu's sleeve was covered in blood and also some darker liquid that he couldn't quite pinpoint. It was also on the other sleeve so it must've been from somewhere else... but that wasn't important, right now. Izuku dried her hands before he applied some wound dressing and plasters to keep it in place.

Izuku could have used the Mystical Palm, but that would've been problematic. Plus, he had some experience with dressing wounds thanks to his lovely childhood so it was nothing. It was actually easier than applying it to yourself and also trying to hide it from your mom.

"How does it feel?" Izuku asked Yaoyorozu who seemed a lot calmer than before, "It should stay in place long enough of you don't aggravate the area. You should go to Recovery Girl first thing in the morning. Just to be on the safe side."

The wounds weren't seriously deep, but Izuku was sure that they probably still hurt like all hell. Judging from her expression, Yaoyorozu didn't seem to be in pain. If anything, she just looked like she wanted to high tail it out of there. Now, that was an expression he could recognise and empathise with.

After all, Yaoyorozu found out from probably her least favourite person that her own family was cutting her out of the discovery of probably the last few centuries. It was something that would hurt most people and Izuku hoped she didn't hate him even more for being the one to expose it all.

"...I'll do that," Yaoyorozu said after a sigh, "You did a very good job wrapping my hand. "

It was then that Izuku realised he hadn't actually let go of her hand which he did as quickly as he dared, "Sorry. I kinda forgot about that."

"You have nothing to apologise for," Yaoyorozu said as she placed her hands in her lap, "I should not have lost my temper the way I did. A loose temper is not befitting of a hero. Sorry for my reaction. I just..."

"It's okay," Izuku said as Yaoyorozu trailed off, "We can't be perfect all the time. Even as hero students, we are still human."

It was true. Yaoyorozu had hurt herself and now she was apologising to him? That didn't feel right. Yes, she'd lost her temper, but it was nothing compared to how Bakugou had been in the past. For a moment, Izuku wondered if he was right in trying to smooth things over or was he just placating Yaoyorozu like he used to do with Bakugou.

Perhaps it was both, but the fact remained that he did want to smooth things over with her.

"I'll have to clean this," Izuku said as he picked up the now-bloody shuriken off the floor, "Wait here."

A quick douse of water was enough to get rid of the blood. It hadn't dried yet so it was a very simple task. Izuku dried the shuriken before walking back to Yaoyorozu who hadn't moved once since he'd left. Her gaze was firmly on the wall of weapons before her eyes whipped towards him.

"May I ask you a question?"

"S-Sure," Izuku said as he sat down again, "What is it?"

"Earlier today, you were in bad shape from all the fights."

That didn't feel like a question.

"I was. You guys were real tough to deal with. My Quirk hurts my body if I overuse it so I'd have probably lost even if I'd somehow got past you and Todoroki."

Yaoyorozu's lips tightened as she heard that.

"Why didn't you heal yourself then?"

...What?

"At the Entrance Exam, you came back for me after I messed up your escape plan" Yaoyorozu's uninjured hand clenched at the memory, "You broke your ankle trying to take me back...but then you healed yourself and destroyed the Zero Pointer. If you had healed yourself in our fight then you would have been back to perfect shape."

Izuku tried not to let the panic bloom on his face, but judging from her facial expressions Yaoyorozu had already clocked it. Strangled noises escaped his mouth as he tried to formulate a response, an excuse to explain it all away.

"It's complicated," Izuku settled for saying as a geyser of frustration burst within him, "In all honesty, I'm far behind everyone else in trying to understand my Quirk. I feel like I'm not living up to its potential and I hate it. I need to do better, but as things are I'm not good enough."

Izuku blinked as he noticed his eyes were tearing up. Just a few minutes ago, he'd been laughing with Kendou and now Yaoyorozu had somehow brought him to tears. Not of sadness, but of frustration. Izuku needed to use chakra beyond what he's shown, but he was scared.

If he did that then ir would not take long for someone to connect him to Kage. Perhaps being revealed as Kage before the Iwatani Robbery wasn't too bad, but right now was probably the worst time for that to happen. It would derail Sumire's investigation and the Iwatani Three would probably get away with their crimes scot-free.

After all, who would believe a child vigilante over established and famous heroes?

The stakes were so big that Izuku could not risk being caught out. Whether it be while on duty as Kage or off duty as Izuku. Yaoyorozu asking this was bad enough. It would be worse coming from a teacher or even worse than that Eraserhead. Aizawa-sensei was probably watching his every move and step. Much like Yaoyorozu, all the teachers would have seen him heal himself at The Entrance Exam.

Izuku felt his heart race as his breaths got shorter and shorter and shorter. What if they asked him questions? What if All Might asked him questions? He had dealt with thousands of criminals in his career. There was an infinitesimal chance of Izuku being able to deceive any of his teachers.

Izuku felt a trembling come over him as a sharp pain in his chest. His heart was pounding so loud—

"Midoriya. Breathe," Yaoyorozu's voice punched through his spiralling thoughts, "Just calm down and breathe."

Izuku's breathing was sharp and rapid as he met Yaoyorozu's gaze. Where he had expected to see disdain or shock or even sadness, there was none. Instead, Yaoyorozu was smiling at him. It was not a full-on grin, but it was true and genuine enough to feel like on.

"Just focus on me, okay," Yaoyorozu's voice was like a balm for his nerves as Izuku felt himself begin to settle, "Everything is fine. There's nothing to worry about or panic about."

That was easy for her to say. What did she know? She didn't know—

"You're right. I don't know what is troubling you," Yaoyorozu responded to his inadvertent and slightly insulting remark, "What I do know is that you can handle it. Out of everyone in our class, you impressed me the most. At the Entrance Exam, Aizawa-sensei's assessment and at the battle trials."

His breathing slowed.

"I won't ask you to tell me what's troubling you, but please believe me when I say you're more than equal to the task."

Izuku's heartbeat faded into the background.

The trembling stopped.

Yaoyorozu seemed to sense it as well as she pulled her hand away from his chin. Her hand glowed a bright pink before revealing two white pills. She handed them over to Izuku who was careful with them.

"Those should help you sleep tonight, " Yaoyorozu explained, "I always find it hard to sleep after a panic attack."

"Thank you, but I need to be up at like 5:30 AM so I don't think—"

"I will wake you up," Yaoyorozu said as she cut him off and lost the casual tone and smile, "Sorry again about the shuriken. I promise I will not be as reckless with them in our lessons."

"Lessons? You mean—"

"Yes, I will teach you," Yaoyorozu said as she rose to her feet, "I am busy so I can only teach you on the weekends. The rest will be up to you."

"That's great!" Izuku exclaimed as he rose to his feet, "That's fine by me. I'll find a way to pay you back for this."

"You don't have to—"

"I know, but I want to," Izuku racked his brain as he scanned his room before he had a brainwave, "That's it!"

Izuku grabbed two kunai off the wall and held them out, "Here. I think this should be enough."

Yaoyorozu'z mouth fell open, "I-I cannot accept that. Those are priceless artefacts! That you discovered. It—"

"I'll probably end up losing a few of these so it really isn't that a big deal," Izuku said as he forced the kunai into Yaoyorozu's hands, "You can use these if you ever run out of lipids for your Quirk. That's a far better use than taking up wall space in my room. Wait. You do know to use these, right? If not, I could give you shuriken instead of—"

"I do," Yaoyorozu said as she took the kunai from him, "Thank you for this. You don't know how much this means to me."

For not the first time that night, Izuku found himself completely speechless. A nervous smile grew on his face as he waved her off. He couldn't quite meet her gaze as they walked to the door. He opened it for her and Yaoyorozu walked through, but before leaving she turned back.

"In our next fight, you won't get the better of me," Yaoyorozu declared but there truly was no malice in her demeanour, "I still haven't forgiven you for that headbutt. Goodnight and please take your pills."

With that said, Yaoyorozu was off as she marched away. Izuku watched her go for the longest time without saying a word. It was only when she turned the corner that a response bubbled free from his chest.

"You broke my jaw! It was a fair move!"

Naturally, there was no response.

That didn't bother Izuku too much. Somehow, he'd broken through that barrier and become almost-friends with Yaoyorozu. All it had taken was destroying a priceless bag, saving her at the Entrance Exam, beating each other to a pulp, treating her injured and finally having a panic attack in front of her.

Izuku sighed as he raised a hand to his head, "It won't always be this hard, will it?"

Surely not, right? Izuku was on good to great terms with most of his class. In fact, now that they'd reconciled a bit, there were only two people that Izuku couldn't really call himself even remotely friendly with Bakugou which was obvious and Todoroki—

"Who were you talking to?"

—who was his only neighbour.

"Oh, Todoroki!" Izuku all but yelped as his neighbour stared at him from further down their hallway, "You surprised me. I didn't see you there."

"I was in my room."

Izuku waited for Todoroki to say more, but that was it.

"R-Right," Izuku said before remembering the earlier question, "I was just speaking to Yaoyorozu. I needed her help with something."

It was a bit embarrassing to admit he'd been alone with a girl in his room. There were definitely a few others in the class who would make all sorts of assumptions. However, if Izuku was expecting Todoroki to be one of those people then he was dead wrong.

"I see."

With that said, Todoroki turned away and walked back into his room.

What the hell?

He didn't have the energy for this. He'd figure all that out later. Izuku went back into his room as he went through his nightly ritual. He knocked back the pills that Yaoyorozu gave him before shooting a long message to Sumire about the whole Fuzui Nirami situation.

She hadn't been online in a while so Izuku was sure she was swamped under work, currently. It was a bit of a relief, to be honest. That talk would end up being a lot longer than he thought he could handle. He was drained after everything and while he'd hid it well downstairs he did collapse in front of Yaoyorozu.

And yet, that had somehow impacted their relationship positively.

After the day Izuku had had, he'd take any positives that he could.

"Wake up."

Izuku twitched as he heard the garbled voice. He waved it off as he turned in his bed— which felt and smelt different than he remembered. He'd only just fallen asleep. There was no need to wake up just yet, right?

"Kid, wake up."

Something nudged him in his side rather hard. Izuku groaned as he turned in his bed. Whoever was trying to get him up was super persistent. Also, what the hell had happened to his bed. Did UA really cheap out so badly on beds? It felt like he was lying on the ground rather than laying in bed.

"Alright, fine. This is a waste of the skills Tsunade-shishou taught me, but—"

The rest of whoever was above him was lost as the voice trailed off. Izuku smiled as he got a few more seconds of serenity before a hand settled on his chest. Izuku's sleepy mind barely processed it before suddenly it felt like he was hit by a lightning bolt.

Screaming, Izuku leapt to his feet. He was on high alert as he looked around the random field he'd found himself in. Izuku scanned the area for enemies as he activated the Fatebreaker. He heard something move behind him and Izuku lashed out with a Tsunade kick.

It was drastic, but considering the circumstances, he felt it was warranted.

What he did not count on was for his kick to be stopped effortlessly by a gloved hand. It was strange too. Instead of it being due to brute force, it almost felt as if the expelled chakra had been negated by an equal force. So what was supposed to be a building crusher ended up being a moderately strong kick at best.

"Wow," a girl with pink hair said as she held onto his leg, "You actually know how to use Shishou's super strength. Shizune would be ashamed if she knew."

Izuku tried to rip his leg free from the girl's grasp to no avail. He loaded up a super punch in his right hand as he prepared to strike, but that was stopped as the girl let go of his leg.

"Oh, I had your leg. Sorry about that!"

Izuku stumbled a bit before regaining his balance. Izuku's mind was confused from everything that had been going on and this girl's upbeat personality was not helping things. Who the hell was she?

"Did you seriously forget me?" the girl huffed as she crossed her arms, "Just my luck that I meet the forgetful buffoon first!"

Forgetful?

Izuku peered at the girl's face. It was twisted into a frown and she was facing away from him, but even then it was still familiar. The last dregs of sleep were wiped away allowing Izuku's mind to finally start working.

He took in the girl's pink hair, red shirt and black gloves. Those struck some sort of chord within him. However, it was the eerily familiar headband that truly kickstarted his mind. The cloth was red which was different to his blue.

Her eyes opened as she looked at him, "Still nothing?"

And yet despite all the very familiar features the girl had, it was her voice that made it click for Izuku.

"S-Sakura?"

The girl, or rather Sakura's, annoyance faded away as if it were never there to begin with, "That's me. I seriously thought you were an amnesiac for a bit there."

"H-How is this possible? Aren't you—"

"Dead? Yes," Sakura nodded with an air of nonchalance, "It's because of that fruit you ate. You've been getting my memories, right? That's what I've seen from watching you."

"Mostly yours, yes," Izuku confirmed before something came over him, "Wait, you've been w-w-watching me? Like all the time?"

"No!" Sakura shouted as she raised a fist making him flinch back, "I only get random glimpses! I'm not a pervert!"

"I never said you were a—"

"Shut it!" Sakura said as she raised her fist, "Look. I don't have much time left. This could be the last time we speak and I don't want to spend it arguing. I don't even know who's next— it could be that pig Ino and trust me she knows nothing worth learning."

Who in the world was Ino?

"Anyways," Sakura said and on a dime, she adopted an almost lecturing tone, "This place is a physical manifestation of me, the God Tree and your mind. It's an amalgamation of all three of us melding into one place."

"...The God Tree?"

"The tree that had the fruit you ate. It's dormant for now, but just me being here is proof that that won't last."

Huh?

"Look, I'd love to go on about all that stuff, but it isn't really important, " Sakura said as she ignored the questioning look on his face, "What is important right now is that you learn to harness the God Tree and your chakra. You've been doing well, but it's nowhere near good enough."

"I know. I'm sorry. I've been trying, but it's slow work. I haven't even made progress on those chakra strings you used to kill that old lady."

"You saw that? Wait. Not important. Look don't beat yourself up about your lack of progress. You learnt the basics of Tsunade-shishou's technique far quicker than I did. You will get the God Tree under control. I'm sure of it."

"Wait, I've been doing the basics?! And what do you mean get the God Tree under control?"

"The Tree is alive and is the reason my world fell," Sakura said and for the first time, genuine sadness seeped into her face, "We couldn't quite defeat it and now it's your world's problem and yours especially. Unlike other shinobi, you have the potential to perform any and every form of jutsu— even ones that only certain clans knew."

Sakura frowned, "It's been a blessing to you thus far, but the potential cost is high."

"What do you mean?"

"The visions you've been getting are vestiges leaking from the God Tree," Sakura said and the world around them blurred.

When everything settled, they were standing before a truly titanic tree that reached high up into the skies. Even the roots of the tree were gigantic and well beyond what he'd ever seen. It was so big that Izuku couldn't accurately assess its height. Furthermore, there were all these strange pods that sprouted from everywhere on the tree.

"These roots cover the entire world and inside of them is virtually every man, woman, child and even plant or animal that has chakra. The God Tree gave us chakra and when it awoke it tried to claim all that chakra back. Our world was divided and it went after all the major powers."

Sakura swiped at the air and the world shifted again before they were in a vast desert. They were standing on the walls of what looked like a vast city in the desert.

"Suna."

The world shifted to a village that was seemingly built upon multiple mountains.

"Kumo."

Another village this time in a rocky desert.

"Iwa."

A modern looking city blanketed in mist.

"Kiri."

Finally, a very familiar one. They were on a mountain overlooking another walled city. A forest stretched as far as the eye can see. The cities were all vastly different from each other in many ways, but the common thread was the titanic roots that were sprawled across them all.

"And Konoha," Sakura said as she turned towards him, "Our people didn't band together and it ended life as we knew it. We couldn't let the God Tree remain in our world so we sent it to yours with a cloaking seal that we knew would eventually. We hoped that it would last long enough to hide it."

A cold sweat formed on Izuku's neck.

"Hide it? Izuku asked as worry and curiosity bubbled within him, "From my people."

Sakura smiled through tears in her eyes, "No. We wanted to hide it from the people who sent it to destroy our world. The God Tree itself is just a weapon. An unbelievably strong and alive one, but still just a weapon."

The curiosity was squashed out as the worry replaced it.

"We sent it away to get it away from its wielder," Sakura said tears still streaming down her face, "We used the villages I just showed you as nexus points for the jutsu used to send it here. They had the greatest concentration of chakra which made the process simpler. We prepared the technique and sent the villages and The Tree to your world."

This was a lot and the implications of dimension travelling were insane, but Izuku had to focus.

"So, Konoha is pretty much a transplant from another dimension entirely?" Izuku asked getting a nod as an answer, "You said you used the other villages as a nexus point. Does that mean the other villages are out there under a barrier of some sort?"

"Yes," Sakura said before her lips pursed, "The good news is that there should only be one fruit— the one you ate. The bad news is that without the tree the other barriers will soon fail."

"Why is that bad?"

"Your senses aren't as keen as mine when it comes to chakra just yet so you can't tell. The bottom line is that absolutely everything in Konoha is now saturated in chakra," Sakura said before she frowned, "The same stands true for all the other villages. If your people discover and are somehow able to extract and harness chakra then they will undoubtedly attract the attention of the God Tree's wielder."

"Wait, does that mean people will have a chakra system like me? If they do harness it?"

Sakura pondered the question before shaking her head, "I'd say it's unlikely— our people only got chakra thanks to someone who'd eaten a chakra fruit. Only that person and their descendants were able to spread chakra. The latent chakra in the world didn't actually give them chakra."

Well, there was that at least.

"However, chakra has many benefits beyond simply giving one a chakra system," Sakura said before he could feel optimistic in any way, "Your people seem to have powers fully independent of chakra. Has it always been like that?"

"No, it's a fairly recent event," Izuku said as many documentaries and lessons poured into his head, "The first emergence was in a city in China. It's a country fairly close to my own...Oh."

Today, immigration between China and Japan was a common thing. Kendou had mentioned that there was a Chinese exchange student in her class. It was therefore possible that the weakening of the barrier resulted in the emergence of Quirks.

With the resort being a popular tourist destination for locals and tourists then it became easy to see how Quirks were spread worldwide as an offshoot of chakra. This was groundbreaking knowledge as one of the world's greatest mysteries was very likely just solved.

And it wasn't even the craziest thing he'd heard in the past couple of days.

"Yeah. Oh," Sakura said after giving him time to process, "You will have to curb the discovery of the other villages as well as the spread of chakra artefacts. Your people are strong, but if things ever get to a point where they ever attract the attention of the God Tree's wielder then you'll be the only shot your world has at surviving."

That was the craziest thing Izuku had heard in the past couple of days, no, the craziest thing he'd ever heard in his life.

"Do you think I can do it? Your world had many people like me and still fell. Is this power enough?"

"I'm not good at these sorts of speeches," Sakura said as her cheeks reddened just a touch before sighing, "Naruto would know exactly what to say... Okay, listen. My people lost because we weren't united. Centuries of bloodshed formed rifts between us and not even the end of the world itself was enough for us to survive."

"We all did terrible things whether in action, reaction or inaction," Sakura said as she clenched her fist, "There's so much that I wish we could've gotten right, but that chance is gone now. We lost and I accept that."

Sakura's body began to glow pink as she began to fade away.

"My time's almost up," Sakura said as she stared at her body fading away, "I'll just leave with you this. As much power as you will have one day, you have one thing that far too few people in my world did."

Sakura's walked up to him and jabbed her finger at his chest, "You have a heart of gold. I haven't seen much of your life, but I've seen enough to know that you are the right choice. It could've been luck or fate or whatever that called you to the Fruit, but you have it now."

Sakura was almost fully transparent now— her entire being bathed in pink light, "You're the greatest chance at stopping your world from turning into mine. I believe in you."

"I can't do it alone!" Izuku said as he reached for Sakura and his fingers slipped through her form, "I'd need your guidance and everyone else too. I'm just a normal kid who ate some fruit what makes you think I deserve or could even handle this?!"

Sakura was almost fully gone now, but even then her smile was radiant, "I think you're too hard on yourself. I had the same problem. I was just a normal girl thrown in amongst gods and legends. My team and Tsunade-shishou are the reason I was able to overcome those feelings. You just need to find a team of your own. Can you promise that?"

It was something Izuku had always felt on some level. Kendou and Sumire and now his classmates like Yaoyorozu and Uraraka and Iida. They were all willing to help him when he was down. He was surrounded by people with hearts of gold and the thirst to fight for what was right.

Perhaps that was the true blessing he had been given instead of the chakra fruit.

"I can, no. I will," Izuku nodded to Sakura who was almost fully gone by now, "I won't let you down."

"I know you won't," Sakura said and her finger poked him on the forehead, "Remember Izuku. You're the legacy of my world. If you're ever in serious trouble, someone will help. You just have to look inside."

Izuku nodded as he felt tears build in his eyes, "Do you have to go? Can't you stay?"

"I can't," Sakura said and it was then that she turned to light completely, "My story ends here. You may get more memories from me, but this is the end of the line for me. Ideally, I'd have stayed for longer, but I couldn't stay back while you began to doubt yourself. This was worth it so don't feel bad."

The pink light began to fade, but even as sad as Sakura sounded he could hear the smile she had in her voice.

"I'll leave it to you," Sakura's voice got softer and softer and softer, "...that was actually a good speech by me! I guess I'm not all that bad at them, after all..."

Izuku didn't get the chance to respond as Sakura faded away entirely. Sadness, surprise, happiness, determination — so many things flowed through his head. Yaoyorozu had raised the point, but Sakura had driven it home.

He could and would do this. He had no idea what he'd do if the God Tree wielder's ever came to his world, but what he did know was that he had to be prepared either way. Not just for his world, but for Sakura's world too. Their world was a brutal and evil and ugly place that lacked unity when it needed it most.

He wouldn't let that happen to his own.

The world turned white and just like that Sakura was gone forever,

Izuku woke up with a start as he heard knocking on his door. The sun peaked through his curtains, but he could tell it was still well before school had to begin. Izuku stumbled over to his door and opened it to reveal—

"Momo?"

Izuku winced at the first name slip up, but Yaoyorozu didn't seem to mind aa she skipped right past it.

"I said I'd wake you up," Yaoyorozu said before she thrust a thermos into his hands, "Here, this should help perk you up. It's Mate tea. It'll energise you like coffee, but without any of the jitters."

"Seriously? That's perfect, thank you!" Izuku said as he took a sip of the delicious tea, "Woah, this is great! Where did you get this from?"

"I had a batch imported from one of the best tea farms in South America."

Izuku almost spat the tea out, "That couldn't have been cheap—"

"You game two priceless artefacts, yesterday," Yaoyorozu reminded him, "This is the least I could do."

"—Right. I forgot who I was talking to you. Either way, thank you! I needed this. I had a pretty weird dream. Maybe it was those pills you gave me—uh they did work, though so I'm still grateful!"

Yaoyorozu blinked before she smiled, "You must have been really tired. I could see it in your eyes."

"I was," Izuku agreed as he returned her smile, "I feel better than I have in a long while and you're a part of the reason. Thank you. Not just for the lessons and the tea and the pills, but also when I kinda lost it for a bit there. I doubt I could've slept without you calming me down."

And without sleep, he probably wouldn't have had that all-important talk with Sakura.

"It's really no problem," Yaoyorozu said calmly, but she did turn away from him, "Anyway, I need to take care of some things so I'll see you at breakfast."

"See you then," Izuku said and he watched as Yaoyorozu walked down the hall.

He was about to go back into his room when Yaoyorozu stopped just before she turned the corner, "Izuku?"

"Yeah?"

"Those pills you had weren't actually sleeping pills. They were just sugar pills."

Izuku tilted his head, "What? But they worked so well. Why would you do that?"

"I'm not a pharmacist. What if I got the dosage wrong?"

"You made pills for Uraraka back at the Entrance Exam."

"That was different!" Yaoyorozu insisted and she covered her mouth almost immediately.

"How?"

Yaoyorozu blinked. Her mouth open to respond before it closed. She then turned on a dime and left him without a response. It was an almost exact mirror image of yesterday, but this time Izuku was the one feeling good about himself. He just hoped he hadn't woken up—

"Who were you talking to?"

—Todoroki.

"Oh! I didn't see you there, Todoroki!"

"I was in my room."

"Yeah, I gathered that. I was just speaking to Yaoyorozu. I hope I didn't wake you up."

"I see."

Todoroki just decided to skip over the last part of what Izuku had said.

"Hey, Todoroki. You ever get that feeling of deja vu?"

"No."

With that said, Todoroki turned away and walked back into his room.

Izuku blinked a few times to confirm that had just happened.

What. The. Hell?

Author Notes:

Not a lot of action, but a lot of talking. Izuku has a very important conversation with Sakura and also got an idea of what could happen if he doesn't get his chakra and the artefacts under control. Will that future come to pass? We'll have to wait and see.

Also, Yaoyorozu and Izuku are getting along quite a bit more. We're past the cold stares and bumbling around phase— mostly. There's still a lot to unpack and I finally used Todoroki lol. Even if it were a bit part, he's a part of the rotating cast of important players. He, and others, will get their time to shine.

Some sooner than others...

The action will be back very, very soon. So sit tight until the next one.

Thanks for the kudos, comments and subs to this fic. I'm glad you guys are enjoying this fic.

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